We don't have formal PE on our transcript, but I did list a credit of dance and gymnastics. But I don't think it was needed. I have another daughter on dance team and quite honestly--unless it was a solo award or something, I don't know it is worth listing independent team awards. There is a character limit with each addition--so I might play around with wording. I would also try and tally the hours dedicated to the sport...8 years won't matter since high school is only 4. The app will ask if this is a whole year or partial year activity and the number of weeks. So if she dances 20 hours per week for 52 weeks of the year that is 1000+ hours per year....4000 hours of dance training and competition sounds quite impressive. I would format a nice "resume" to use an an attachment to the transcript in the same file--so that when the transcript is uploaded, it's all there. Common app wants you to be concise and not wordy. And PE is only 1 year, 5 hours a week during a 40 week school year. So anything in excess of 200 hours if you want to list dance as a class on her transcript--would be extra-curricular. My daughter, who is in 9th grade, has a performance resume for theater/dance. I will consider that as an attachment to her transcript for uploading. I will have her comp team for all 4 years be listed as one activity in the common app. I will have each theater show performance listed independently by role. But she is considering a performance major.

Common app has a section to input all data that would be included on an extra-curricular resume. So it is helpful to have it. But probably not necessary to upload it. We did just because I made it part of her transcript document.

My daughter included hers. She used it to fill out the common app. By including it with her transcript, it is just a one stop shop of her high school career. The resume page includes schools attended, test scores and then a section of Awards, Volunteer hours, sports, employment. I have heard that it is not necessary. But in my opinion, as long as it is concise, for the homeschooler, it is a better representation of their homeschool high school career. Common app had a section to include all this stuff anyway. So the schools want to know it regardless of how you include it. Just so long as it is included. I would make one just because it makes filling out applications easier. This is how I listed her volunteer hours: 78.5 Volunteer Hours with Friends for Animal Sanctuary Thrift Shop as sorter and cashier. Note that it is very concise...there is a character limit, I think. This was her award that we included. The length is roughly about the character limit because we had to trim and make it more concise. It lacks details but properly explains, within the character limit, her accomplishment and how she achieved it. " Dolley Madison Award Recipient (highest level award) with American Heritage Girls representing a cumulative 2 years and 100 plus hours of work attending meetings, earning 6 badges, becoming CPR/First Aid certified, and planning, organizing and executing a history day for 20 girls as my final project."

I just wanted to post an update...not that anyone was following along! I pained and agonized over the transcript to a fault. I wanted it to be a fair and honest representation of her work. I hemmed and hawed on how to designate courses--some were worthy of honors but I made sure that what I thought was actually so. In the end, things went great. She used the common app and then sent me a recommendation request as her guidance counselor. That is where I uploaded her transcript with supporting documentation AND answered questions about homeschooling. I was prepping for Irma and did not expect an impromptu essay prompt for me on why we chose to homeschool. We wanted the application in before the storm, so I drew on my writing experience (haha) and crafted something about why we homeschool. It may or may not have focused on the early years, but it worked! What I did--pretty much all of her high school English credits were honors. She had taken Great books courses on line and after some back and forth, they agreed it was honors quality work. Originally they said it wasn't because it didn't have that label. But not satisified--I argued back that I found it unacceptable that they charged so much, expected so much for this only to be a standard college prep course. They even have a new honors program and this same course was included. THEY AGREED WITH ME. yay! So I felt confident labeling it. I did include the book lists. I had found that supporting documentation when declaring courses as honors is helpful just so that it doesn't come across as an arbitrary label to get those weighted points. Her FLVS courses were easier since those that were honors were deemed so by the state of Florida. I did adjust all of her art courses to better reflect a recognizable course title that the school would recognize and understand. I did include future courses for her senior year. And even though the school weights and I don't need to, for our record keeping and to just make it known, I included her inclusive GPA, her academic weighted GPA (weighted english, foreign language, social studies, science and math). We included Methods of Evaluation for her academic courses. This is the blurb..kept it simple: "Methods of Evaluation: Algebra, Geometry: Practice Problems and Exams objectively scored and grades awarded on the 10 point grading scale. Latin 100 and Latin 200: Course taken with on-line Latin class, Instructor Karen Karppinen. Student grade based upon class attendance and participation, homework submissions, frequent quizzes, and Unit exams. Objective scoring of assignments and grades awarded on a 10 point grading scale. Biology and Chemistry with lab: Course grades based on student participation, 16 module exams per course, and 10 labs per course. FVLS courses as determined by FLVS syllabi. Dual Enrollment courses as determined by professors. (H) English 11- Essay Writing/Research - class participation, Quizzes, Personal Essays, 20 page term paper (MLA formats) (H) Great Books English courses: Extensive reading of classical books listed in syllabi, weekly class attendance and participation in Socratic Discussions, essays (Chicago Style), and Oral Exams. See attached book lists." And apparently my FLVS acronym is wrong. oopsie. We are hopeful for scholarships. I was in contact with Admissions as well because there was confusion in our local homeschool community--they thought that our high school credits for dual enrollment had to match public school. This made it seem like my daughter was a credit slacker. In a very bad way. But we confirmed that my 1:1 college credit to high school credit was our decision and that the schools cannot, by law, tell me otherwise. So whew! She is very excited!

Would the school not offer a shuttle? That sounds pretty crappy.

I emailed UCF, where she will be applying because I had received conflicting information and the last thing I wanted was an error on her transcript. In our state, for our admissions -- point blank from a senior admissions director: "Unfortunately, we are unable to tell you whether or not your daughter’s homeschool Dual Enrollment courses would count for as half credit or a full credit. As the administrator you are awarding her high school credits, so unfortunately we cannot determine how much credit is given to each course. " This was such a relief because I was on the phone with one of their "helper" admissions people who told me differently and that certain DE courses could only count as half a high school credit and in our state, history and elective DE courses are almost always only counted as a half credit for public school students. This was all different from what the advisor at the college said during orientation when we started DE which was : 1 college course = high school credit. This is a relief because the half credit folks had my daughter's transcript coming up short and making her look like a slacker... The full credit treatment more accurately reflects her efforts and what I as the administrator had planned based upon what the college told us from the very start. This is our first high schooler and I really did not want to mess up and have her miss out on things because of arbitrary guidelines that didn't actually exist for homeschoolers. Yay! And since I verified that Psychology can count towards Social studies as it is indeed on a state list of approved courses that count--since it is DE, she should get that extra weighted point. So relieved to have it in writing that it is indeed my call. At least in Florida. :-D

So if nothing changes and you still plan "Married filing jointly", is this an issue? We are new at this and this will be our first FAFSA. AT least since we were in school.

Hello, I am not the best reader and critiquer of essays.... But I do recall from when my daughter took a great books course: A well developed thesis is key, and references from your learning materials and history are helpful in proving your thesis. Also, in my opinion, essays take a more argumentative approach. So state your opinions as facts and demonstrate them to be true. I agree about the "some would say". Unless you have a solid statistical reference that proves something like that, it is best omitted. And one thing my daughter learned the hard way at times--make sure the prompt is referenced and responded to in your body. This may all be the case--I just don't read papers well (hence why she was sourced out). But I hope you find those few statements helpful.

We have spoken directly and didn't think to ask specifically but no where did they give any clue that histories that are Dual Enrollment only count as a half credit, so we weren't worrying about whether Psychology counted. :-( . Looks like my daughter is in a similar boat except that she took Psych directly at the colleges. For their purposes, they count and weight DE and AP the same.

She has 1 credit American History with FLVS 0.5 credit American Govt Honors with FLVS And she has EUH 1000 which apparently only counts for 0.5 credit and not a full credit per what we expected. She will take a DE Art History course in the spring which also only counts as a 0.5 credit on her transcript. So she will have 2.5 credits plus the Psychology. If I can convince her to take AMH 2020, then she will haev 3 + 1. The rest of her transcript will have 4.5 English, 4.0 Foreign Language, 4.0 math, 4.0 science and then she has several computer courses on her electives. Social studies was like pulling teeth.

I ended up emailing and asking and at first they said no. I expressed my disappointment and explanation of why it was considered as such and my surprise they felt it on caliber with a standard college prep course. They agreed it was more than a standard college prep and considered it honors level of effort. And since it is a part of the honors program they began they will discuss changing the course title to include the honors designation. So yay!

My daughter will be applying to schools within the state university system of Florida. Anyone know if they accept Psychology as a social studies credit on the high school transcript? I found some schools OUTSIDE of Florida that do, but I am asking specifically about Florida. If they do not, then she needs to find another history course or 2 since she is dual enrollment and most only count as a 0.5 credit. At present she has 2.0 credits without Psychology and 3.0 with Psychology. Advice? Experience with this?

I was going to avoid worrying about this, but apparently it matters as the state schools my daughter will be applying to weight honors and up. So for a "competitive" transcript, it needs to accurately reflect reality compared to her peers. This can mean the difference between guaranteed admission or not, this scholarship or that scholarship. She took 2.5 years of Great Books courses with Angelicum. I have been searching high and low on the internet and at a minimum, it is comparable if not way more reading than a typical high school honors English class. I have emailed, but she has not been a student, now and I am unsure of the turn around time. She is going to start filling out the common app. How have you treated Great Books lit on your transcripts? I pulled the book list so it can be used to supplement the paper transcript they request. It will not be included in any on-line applications as there is no space for a book list that I am aware of at this time. Some comments: they actually have a designated honors program that seems to combine the present Great Books program, with no adjustments, with their Great "courses"--other academic subjects. Based on that and what I know of what it took to complete the course, I'm inclined to put it as honors. But I would love to hear feedback. I don't want to claim it as something it may not be. My goal is not to inflate value, but rather accurately represent the value of the course.

Sounds like your daughter took what my daughter did. My question is--did you give it an honors designation? I can't figure out if it is honors worthy and that does matter for scholarship consideration for us.

My rising senior took Algebra I with MUS and transitioned to other math programs just fine. I think it is fine. I have not looked into their higher level programs.

I made mine retake it. And she was MADDDDDD. But I wasn't going to do anything for a class I didn't teach in a subject I knew nothing about. The 2nd year was a struggle, but her grade was way better. (for perspective, she stopped doing the work and nearly failed. But a D was terrible. She ended the class with a B on the retake and bid good riddance to that subject.) While we homeschool, I'm not in the practice of rewarding my student by bailing her out. She learned a valuable lesson and now busts her buns in other classes. I don't think that same lesson would have been earned via extra credit. Oh, and I made her pay for the retake class.

With possible exception for art schools, my daughter is applying to state schools in Florida only. I was NOT going to weight. But after visiting 3 state universities and discovering that all are on the same page regarding weighting, we will weight according to their method. Transcript will show unweighted GPA. Weighted GPA will be 0.5 extra points per honors course and 1.0 extra points per Dual Enrollment. (they include AP and other things, but she only has DE). We have emails out and researching a couple of courses she had to figure out if they would "count" as honors or not. I truly cannot tell at all. So trying to figure that out. We don't wish to unfairly call them that but we don't want to NOT give them that distinction if they are actually are because it matters for scholarship and automatic admission purposes. The only current honors courses are those she took through Florida virtual school that are formally labeled as such by the state. The universities will recalculate these grades with those methods, so I figured there was no harm in anticipating what they will already do. But point blank, each school said they will start with unweighted and re-weight according to the above parameters. So what you actually do on the transcript aside from assigning the appropriate level is rather meaningless. Hope that helps. (we don't know what private schools do as they are not on our radar)

Thank you so much for the responses! Lori D, just the tutorial I need. Thanks!

I hated reading as well! Diagnosed as an adult with vision issues that require Therapy or prism glasses which explained why I kept thinking I needed glasses for 30 years. That said--the moment the school system let me bail on literature, I could not run fast enough. I had a regular English class in 9th with, that I recall, only Romeo and Juliet plus other light reading, 2 strictly literature classes in 10th and 11th and DE English in 12th. That was comp courses only, ENC 1101 and 1102 in the state of Florida. So I would say if she has at least 2 years of lit but pursues English in other legit ways, she may be fine. Even in college, I avoided lit. I did have to do more Gordon rule classes, but found not lit classes to satisfy that. One was a computers course (mostly history and impact on society and stuff) and the other was a music appreciation class. Most colleges seem to want 4 years of English, so if you could accomplish the next 2 years in satisfying that requirement without Lit, she may be fine.

Back when I was in school, I took only the SAT and at the time, the prevailing thought was you keep taking and improve your scores and colleges take the best of each section. So my highest Math and English were used. Today I see some things that confuse me and I was needing help with clarification. Do schools not do this any more? We are looking at the SUS of Florida, so all state schools. My daughter wants to take the tests. (She took ACT in 7th). How early can she take it before the scores will "count"? Does taking it in 10th help any or is that best avoided. If it helps, UF lists scores by section but it can't mix old and new tests but will accept highest sub scores if taken multiple times. Not sure exactly what they mean--old version and the new updated version? They say they cannot do this with ACT sub scores. (Why?) Any reason to NOT take either test in 10th aside from the change over? She is going to take the PSAT as long as I remember to contact the school at the appropriate time. Is that still considered good practice to take it in 10th?

I imagine it is for the reason that the school would have vetted identity making the transcript a useful ID. However, this may be something you want to ask of HSLDA. Sometimes, as homeschoolers, we need to be treated exactly the same. But sometimes, we don't. I would be curious of what HSLDA would say. I would to ahead and replace their SS cards. They may need them sooner or later anyway.

I have 5 children ages 15 down to 3 months. I had hoped so, but ummm....no. I think part of it is parent personality, child personality, overall rearing, free will, and hormones. My 15yo just bombed a class. How? She just didn't do the homework. The only thing I could have done was to not trust her and physically look. But I thought I was doing my due diligence with the exception of a basic follow up. I was wrong. Home school does not make our Tweens and teens immune. Heck, we have drama queens here. BUT.... At least they are home experiencing thejr screw ups in a safe haven. At bricks and mortar, I would have no input on the variety of little things that occur. I find my teen is coming around. I think being home to navigate these mistakes are a blessing to her to help her find her own way. We did experience some drama from Peers as well. But now things are mostly okay. I hope the road is easier as the siblings age and mom and dad grow with wisdom.

(Me having a baby is not her fault, just to clarify.)

I just want to say that I was pregnant and had a baby due. While this is not her fault and I did not visible check the grading website, I point blank asked her regularly about it. I didn't just leave her to her own devices. I do accept a modest percent of accountability. I just point blank never realized or thought to physically check the grade. I had done it prior. But with her solid A after the first semester, just didn't think it necessary for it to ever be a thought bubble. I did look up grade forgiveness polices but could not find any. I may look up the University one just to see how they handled it for their own students.

*completing, not completed.